Our offer to secondary teachers

All trained Secondary teachers would see their base salaries increase by 3 percent every year.

A beginner secondary teacher’s base salary would increase from $51,200 to $55,948 by 2020. This is over $800 more than in the previous offer.

Around 70 per cent of secondary teachers are on the top of their pay scale and would see their base salary increase from $78,000 to $85,233.

The majority of secondary teachers receive extra remuneration for taking on extra responsibilities. 57 percent of secondary teachers are paid above the top of the base scale.

This new offer addresses PPTA’s concerns the first offer was not distributed evenly, giving higher increases to beginning teachers and teachers at the top of the scale. Under the new offer, secondary teachers would receive the same 9.3 percent cumulative increase across three years.

This offer would see over 70 percent of teachers getting $7,200 more annually after two years.

The second offer will cost $405 million over four years, compared to the first offer of $367 million over four years.

We are also addressing teachers’ concerns outside the bargaining process.

Teacher Supply - $40 million

In October 2018 the Government committed a further $10.5 million for initiatives to boost secondary and primary teacher supply. This is on top of the $29.5 million for supply initiatives that’s been announced since late last year.

This funding supports initiatives that will get more graduates into permanent teaching positions, help experienced teachers get back into the profession, attract New Zealand teachers back from overseas, and encourage overseas-trained teachers to come and teach in New Zealand.

The extra $10.5 million provides funding for up to 230 grants of $10,000 for schools to get more graduate teachers into classrooms. It also includes funding to support the overseas recruitment campaign targeting the recruitment of 900 NZ trained and overseas trained teachers into New Zealand classrooms.

As at 4 November 2018, 3383 overseas teachers have applied to work in New Zealand, 2410 have been assessed and 565 candidates are ready and looking for a teaching job. Schools have lodged 189 vacancies with overseas recruiting agencies.

Learning Support - $500 million

Budget 18 provided $283 million in additional funding for Learning Support. The government has now announced a further $217 million commitment that will fund around 600 Learning Support Coordinators for primary and secondary schools.

Budget 2018 included more funding for Early Intervention (to recruit more specialists, increase places, and increase study awards); increased funding for teacher aides; expansion of the Intensive Wraparound Service; and addressed cost pressures for the Ongoing Resourcing Scheme, Sensory Schools and NZSL, and English for Speakers of Other Languages.

The new Learning Support Coordinators will work alongside teachers in schools and kura to connect students with the additional learning and behaviour services they need. This funding will allow about 1,000 schools to have a full or part time Learning Support Coordinator from 2020.

The Government has a wide range of work underway, which will help to address workload. This includes:

Working with the sector to develop an Education Workforce strategy

A joint taskforce has been set up to identify the compliance-related administrative tasks that can be reduced or eliminated to free up time for principals and teachers.

An Education Professional’s Wellbeing Framework has been endorsed and a plan for implementation is being developed.

We are also reviewing how teachers assess learning, which teachers have told us also impacts on workload and their ability focus on teaching.

How many secondary school teachers are there?

There are around 30,000 secondary teachers

How many students?

The 2017 July roll had around 275,800 students enrolled in secondary schools